FINAL FANTASY XI Roadmap for October 2011 – March 2012 (10/20/2011)

[Shenrien]

So what you're telling me, is the new trigger NMs, the Arch Bosses, and the new items that come out of Dynamis, have always been in the game since the release of Dynamis? cause it certainly was new to me when it first came out, I haven't played this game for the 7-8years that most veteran players have, but I've done my fair share of Dynamis and I don't remember there being all these Arch NMs, and Lost NMs.

[Eurell]

I'll even give you Dynamis, since its still basically the same thing, same old zones, same basic goal. Nyzul is getting new goals per floor they said, and who knows what they are doing with Einherjar's new chambers, but I'll even give you those, because it'll be the same basic event still. New Limbus floors seems way more towards new content though, since every floor in Limbus has already been different from every other floor.

But not counting any of that at all, we still have Dungeon Crawling, which we no 0 about, not even it's actual name. And we have The Last stand, which is giving us a whole new zone, but beyong that, we again don't know anything about it. Why are we just dismissing 2 new events as complete shit before they even come out, and then complaining that SE isn't giving us anything new?

[Kaisha]

I wasn't referring to the set bonus, but the awesomeness that was the entire set. At level 75, you needed some combination of Refresh, Ballad, and/or Evoker's Roll in order to keep Avatars out full time. At 95 avatars are pretty much free or give you MP back, and I mean outside of Abyssea and before casting refresh on yourself. (And you can cast refresh on yourself and have convert too boot.) It is so much easier to play the job now than it was at 95.

I always felt SMN AF3 was a gear 'band-aid' to the major problem that always plagued SMN. I wouldn't consider it awesome, but a fucking necessity if you actually want to make your job valid to use over other jobs in more situations than "lolZerg/EA".

[Darkmagi]

I strongly fear that the last stand will be WOE 2.0 based on the pictures. Pretty much quitting if we get another WOE.

[Septimus]

I always felt SMN AF3 was a gear 'band-aid' to the major problem that always plagued SMN. I wouldn't consider it awesome, but a fucking necessity if you actually want to make your job valid to use over other jobs in more situations than "lolZerg/EA".

That is one way to look at it for sure. If the problem is fixed with gear, job traits, job abilities, or just plain adjustments, we should just be happy that it was fixed.

But any way you slice it, comparing SMN at 75 to SMN at 90/95 with Caller's Armor +2 is a whole different ball game that is much more enjoyable to play.

[Karbuncle]

I strongly fear that the last stand will be WOE 2.0 based on the pictures. Pretty much quitting if we get another WOE.

Looks more like Riverne to me, Clouds and all.

[Tsuneo]

Is that Riverne looking place The Last Stand or dungeon crawling? I Assumed it was dungeon crawling because the picture was under February, and apparently The Last Stand happens in December.

[Karbuncle]

Well, It might be either or... IDK

A while back they released a Concept-picture of the "Last Stand" and it looked kinda like an Avatar area with a Huge Crystal.

Seeing the floating Islands and the huge Crystal instantly made me think of That.

[Mrbeansman]

Isn't the last stand an area that's been in the dats for like ever?

[Karbuncle]

Thats what it was named. And it looked like Horutoto Ruins.

Something tells me they're changing it though.

[cdgreg]

I'm shocked they're rushing to 99, I figured they'd draw that out until next summer.

[Eurell]

Is that Riverne looking place The Last Stand or dungeon crawling? I Assumed it was dungeon crawling because the picture was under February, and apparently The Last Stand happens in December.

It's the last stand. They titled the picture of it with the last road map. Dungeon crawling is what we have 0 info on, they said dungeon crawling won't even be the name for it lol.

[Dragir]

I see no mention of an upgrade from DirectX 8. Meanwhile, this is what FFXIV is getting while FFXI is getting... more grind-content and reskins. Should have you wondering where your FFXI subscription money is going... and please, don't mention the PS2. They shouldn't even exist anymore.

1. Implementation of a new graphics engine.
2. New server system designed for increased speed and performance.
3. Fully renewed user interface.
4. Complete redesign of character creation.
5. Completely redesigned world.
6. Completely overhauled search function.
7. Complete redesign of the market wards in a system incorporating both retainers and Auction House systems.
8. Introduction of a mail and delivery system.
9. Release of a drag & drop “mannequin” system to change gear on the fly when changing classes.
10. Content finder to find groups to enjoy content and dungeons even across different servers.
11. New achievement system, with the addition of 300 new achievements and the implementation of rewards like titles and items.
12. Implementation of the Job System
13. Addition of Male Mi’quote, Female Roegadyns and Female Highlander
14. Primal summoning and monster taming ability available to certain classes.
15. Release of a “companion” system for summoned and tamed pets that will develop over time.
16. Addition of private rooms (inns and similar).
17. Implementation of Hamlet Defense battles.
18. Implementation of content revolving around the Twelve mythos (the gods of the game’s lore).
19. Release of new battles against the Garlean empire, including those against the Garlean Legatii (FFXIV‘s version of the Judges from FFXII).
20. Introduction of legacy Final Fantasy items, those items will have unique graphics and stats.
21. New dungeons.
22. Implementation of player housing.
23. Implementation of collaboration in dungeons between Disciples of War, Magic, Hand and Land.
24. Implementation of a feature to replay cutscenes.
25. Full voice acting for cutscenes in all four languages (Japanese, English, German and French)
26. New Seventh Umbral Era storyline.
27. Implementation of multi-party alliances.
28. Addition of a Signature feature for crafted items.
29. Release of player-driven communities known as Free Companies. They will allow access to personal estates and cooperative crafting.
30. Implementation of Chocobo gear and armor, mounted combat (!), mounted content and shared chocobos.
31. Implementation of other forms of transportation.

[Kaisha]

All of that is no surprise given XIV was supposed to be a flagship product and ended up worse on all accounts than FFXI.

[Toth]

I'm shocked they're rushing to 99, I figured they'd draw that out until next summer.

They really have to though. Players know 95 was only a stopgap and therefore are going to be meh about gear for that level when they know new shinies are coming. SE has no choice but to get us to 99 then build a new end game around it.

[Ghost_Wheel22]

I see no mention of an upgrade from DirectX 8. Meanwhile, this is what FFXIV is getting while FFXI is getting... more grind-content and reskins. Should have you wondering where your FFXI subscription money is going... and please, don't mention the PS2. They shouldn't even exist anymore.

1. Implementation of a new graphics engine.
2. New server system designed for increased speed and performance.
3. Fully renewed user interface.
4. Complete redesign of character creation.
5. Completely redesigned world.
6. Completely overhauled search function.
7. Complete redesign of the market wards in a system incorporating both retainers and Auction House systems.
8. Introduction of a mail and delivery system.
9. Release of a drag & drop “mannequin” system to change gear on the fly when changing classes.
10. Content finder to find groups to enjoy content and dungeons even across different servers.
11. New achievement system, with the addition of 300 new achievements and the implementation of rewards like titles and items.
12. Implementation of the Job System
13. Addition of Male Mi’quote, Female Roegadyns and Female Highlander
14. Primal summoning and monster taming ability available to certain classes.
15. Release of a “companion” system for summoned and tamed pets that will develop over time.
16. Addition of private rooms (inns and similar).
17. Implementation of Hamlet Defense battles.
18. Implementation of content revolving around the Twelve mythos (the gods of the game’s lore).
19. Release of new battles against the Garlean empire, including those against the Garlean Legatii (FFXIV‘s version of the Judges from FFXII).
20. Introduction of legacy Final Fantasy items, those items will have unique graphics and stats.
21. New dungeons.
22. Implementation of player housing.
23. Implementation of collaboration in dungeons between Disciples of War, Magic, Hand and Land.
24. Implementation of a feature to replay cutscenes.
25. Full voice acting for cutscenes in all four languages (Japanese, English, German and French)
26. New Seventh Umbral Era storyline.
27. Implementation of multi-party alliances.
28. Addition of a Signature feature for crafted items.
29. Release of player-driven communities known as Free Companies. They will allow access to personal estates and cooperative crafting.
30. Implementation of Chocobo gear and armor, mounted combat (!), mounted content and shared chocobos.
31. Implementation of other forms of transportation.

All that and I still don't give enough of a fuck to play it for free.

[Spira]

Final Fantasy XIV has been deemed a failure, and it truly is, given the state of things.
At no point did it ever come close to matching the success of XI, even at its lowest point.

You absolutely have to remember that you cannot compare XI and XIV like this, if you must compare them. XI is closing in on its 10th anniversary. XIV just passed its 1st. When XI was just past 1 year it was still getting fervent attention from the devs and numerous ongoing tweaks. Version updates happened once almost every month. They were really looking towards improving the game.

XIV on the other hand simply got off on the wrong footing in a different MMO climate. There really isn't much to say about this here since this is XI's roadmap we're discussing.

I'm happy to know that they'll be implementing new Alexandrite drop options in Nyzul, firstly because thats one new avenue to pursue and will significantly increase the supply, together with tweaked droprate from Salvage coming soon, and secondly because I happen to love Nyzul anyway.

New content to old events is new content all the same.. especially when they're as expansive as what is being done here.

The problem, at least for Dynamis, thus far.. is that the new content doesn't exactly support the framework of the the Dynamis overhaul. People who don't see the value of the new NMs don't pursue it. Its hard to gather people and decide to do these new arch NMs, especially when they're probably more content in solo/duoing and getting good coin out of it.

I suppose with Nyzul it would be slightly different in Nyzul because the new content doesn't detract from pre-existing goals. Nobody really does Nyzul anymore since all its existing drops have been obsoleted. If anything, its for tokens, for which I'm pretty sure the new Nyzul will reward players as well. If new rewards are built into the token system, then you can easily go about progressing floors / clearing objectives / hunting NMs / getting tokens all at the same time.

But good news is that old resources are being re-utilizied and not obsoleted. A wealth of new content can easily be thrown together for Limbus, Einherjar and Nyzul because they've never used the whole 1-zone-occupancy thing that Dynamis used to have and can cater to new additions very easily (well, Limbus kinda does but its broken into different areas) without needing to revamp/remove all the old stuff.

[Cail]

i'm with julian

[Shenrien]

I wanna know where the fuck my Garrison revamp is.

[Julian]

I never said the new content is going to definitely be bad, I said it's most likely going to be bad. Based on past experience(MMM) and the fact that the dev team is turning back into pre-abyssea-dev-team. There's nothing I would want more than for one of these to be good so I'll actually feel like logging on and playing again.

And I should probably use a word like activity instead of content. Yeah, dynamis has some new content, but at its core, it's still dynamis. (It's kind of depressing how I still remember how to do all the pulls, what "danger" mobs are in every single pull, and stuff like that from old dynamis, and this info is never going to be useful again, but it's still sitting in my brain )